Gail Alexan­der

Trinidad and To­ba­go’s flags are at half-mast to mark the pass­ing of a re­mark­able woman.

As trib­utes poured in for Queen Eliz­a­beth II fol­low­ing her death yes­ter­day, Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley said the late Queen had left a last­ing lega­cy for the peo­ple of the UK and the world.

Op­po­si­tion Leader Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar mean­while said the late Queen was the soul of kind­ness.

And T&T will be rep­re­sent­ed at the up­com­ing fu­ner­al of late UK monarch at Bal­moral Cas­tle in Scot­land.

Gov­ern­ment and Op­po­si­tion yes­ter­day joined the rest of the world in pay­ing trib­ute to the woman who was Britain’s longest-serv­ing monarch for 70 years since age 25 - a woman who broke ground in many qui­et dig­ni­fied ways and has now be­come leg­end.

Eliz­a­beth Alexan­dra Mary Wind­sor, head of the Unit­ed King­dom and Com­mon­wealth of Na­tions, died just over a year af­ter her hus­band Prince Phillip died in 2021

Britain was plunged in­to deep mourn­ing from yes­ter­day, with thou­sands stand­ing in the rain out­side of Buck­ing­ham Palace, Lon­don, to pay their re­spects. Her death has been mourned glob­al­ly by lead­ers and peo­ple across the world, hail­ing her life­time’s work

Her el­dest son will be­come King Charles III and his wife Camil­la, Queen Con­sort.

The For­eign and Cari­com Af­fairs Min­is­ter stat­ed that Prime Min­is­ter Row­ley - cur­rent­ly in the UK on an en­er­gy mis­sion - yes­ter­day ex­pressed con­do­lences to His Majesty King Charles III, the oth­er mem­bers of the Roy­al Fam­i­ly and to the gov­ern­ment and peo­ple of the UK on the pass­ing of Britain’s longest-serv­ing monarch.

The Min­istry stat­ed Row­ley said that af­ter reign­ing for 70 years, “Her Majesty has left a last­ing lega­cy for the peo­ple of the UK and the world.”

The Prime Min­is­ter not­ed that Queen Eliz­a­beth II’s life was marked by her strong sense of du­ty and ded­i­ca­tion. He re­called the promise that the Queen had made at the age of 21, when she pledged her life to the ser­vice of her peo­ple.

“That promise was re­freshed on her Coro­na­tion Day when she asked for ‘God’s help to make good that vow… I do not re­gret, or re­tract, one word of it’.”

The Min­istry not­ed that Queen Eliz­a­beth vis­it­ed Trinidad and To­ba­go on sev­er­al oc­ca­sions - the most re­cent of which was in 2009 to par­tic­i­pate in the Com­mon­wealth Heads of Gov­ern­ment meet­ing.

The Min­istry quot­ed Row­ley as say­ing, “Al­though Trinidad and To­ba­go gained its In­de­pen­dence and lat­er be­came a Re­pub­lic, this coun­try recog­nis­es the last­ing lega­cy of Her Majesty. She will be par­tic­u­lar­ly re­mem­bered for her self­less du­ty to the Com­mon­wealth. May Her Majesty’s soul Rest in Peace.”

The Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty Min­istry stat­ed that the Na­tion­al Flag at all state and non-state agen­cies and all T&T’s diplo­mat­ic mis­sions will be flown at half-mast, as a sign of re­spect, on the pass­ing of Her Majesty.

The Min­istry said the Na­tion­al Flag should be flown at half-mast or half-staff by low­er­ing the flag by its own depth, from its nor­mal po­si­tion at the peak of the staff, when the na­tion is in mourn­ing.

The flag was flown at half-mast im­me­di­ate­ly yes­ter­day and will con­tin­ue to­day and as well on the day of the late Queen’s fu­ner­al ser­vice.

At yes­ter­day’s post-Cab­i­net me­dia brief­ing, Com­mu­ni­ca­tion Min­is­ter Symon de No­bri­ga, who called for a mo­ment of si­lence to mark the late Queen’s death, said T&T had been of­fi­cial­ly in­formed of her pass­ing.

“It is my du­ty to ob­vi­ous­ly con­vey our deep­est sym­pa­thies. The nec­es­sary of­fi­cial cor­re­spon­dence will be con­veyed from the Of­fice of the Prime Min­is­ter to the gov­ern­ment of Britain and (UK) Prime Min­is­ter (Eliz­a­beth) Truss.

“The For­eign Af­fairs Min­is­ter has al­ready been in con­tact with the British High Com­mis­sion­er.”

De No­bri­ga added, “Once the fu­ner­al arrange­ments are fi­nalised, T&T will be rep­re­sent­ed and any oth­er in­for­ma­tion will be con­veyed to the pub­lic via the OPM and the For­eign Af­fairs Min­is­ter. Again, our deep­est con­do­lences; and I ask for a brief mo­ment of si­lence be­fore we con­tin­ue,”

T&T’s High Com­mis­sion­er in the UK is Vish­nu Dhan­paul. There was no con­fir­ma­tion from the For­eign Af­fairs Min­istry if he would rep­re­sent T&T at the fu­ner­al.

A soul of kind­ness—Kam­la

Op­po­si­tion Leader Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar yes­ter­day said, “The world has lost a soul of im­mac­u­late kind­ness, strength and courage, which en­riched so many for decades.

“Her Majesty’s life was an in­spir­ing one, as she demon­strat­ed that nei­ther youth nor gen­der would pre­vent her from un­der­tak­ing a role with such great re­spon­si­bil­i­ties.

“Her Majesty’s many acts of good­will through­out our Com­mon­wealth, her words of wis­dom through­out our glob­al com­mu­ni­ty and most of all the way she man­aged the tribu­la­tions that faced her life, her fam­i­ly and so­ci­ety were shin­ing ex­am­ples of courage which of­fered strength to many.”

Per­sad-Bisses­sar added, “As the first Fe­male Chair in Of­fice of the Com­mon­wealth and first fe­male Prime Min­is­ter of T&T, I had the es­teemed plea­sure of meet­ing Her Majesty on the Com­mon­wealth stage and was great­ly en­light­ened by her hu­mour as well as her great hu­mil­i­ty, but even more so en­riched by her de­sire to see a bet­ter world.

“Her Majesty lived a life of ser­vice to the British peo­ple and our Com­mon­wealth to the very end, as this week she ap­point­ed the 15th Prime Min­is­ter of her reign. For her years of love, kind­ness, and ded­i­ca­tion to the Com­mon­wealth, we will al­ways be grate­ful.”

Of­fer­ing con­do­lences to the British peo­ple, Per­sad-Bisses­sar said, “How­ev­er, I ask them to find strength in Her Majesty’s own words, ‘The coura­geous do not lie down and ac­cept de­feat; in­stead, they are all the more de­ter­mined to strug­gle for a bet­ter fu­ture’.”

Cari­com: A pas­sion­ate leader

Cari­com chair­man, Suri­name Pres­i­dent Chan­drikaper­sad San­tokhi, al­so is­sued a re­lease on be­half of the re­gion on the Queen’s pass­ing.

“The Caribbean Com­mu­ni­ty (Cari­com) ex­press­es its deep re­grets at the pass­ing of Her Majesty, Queen Eliz­a­beth II of the Unit­ed King­dom and North­ern Ire­land and Head of the Com­mon­wealth which in­cludes nine of our Mem­ber States, and all five of our As­so­ciate Mem­bers due to their re­la­tion to the Unit­ed King­dom.

“Dur­ing her 70-year reign, Her Majesty’s com­mit­ment to ser­vice and de­vo­tion to du­ty was a ster­ling ex­am­ple to all. She was the one con­stant in a world of nev­er-end­ing change.

“Queen Eliz­a­beth II will be re­mem­bered for her love of and ded­i­ca­tion to the Com­mon­wealth of which she was a pas­sion­ate sup­port­er and leader.

“Cari­com ex­tends its con­do­lences to the Roy­al fam­i­ly and to the Gov­ern­ment and peo­ple of the Unit­ed King­dom, North­ern Ire­land and the Com­mon­wealth of Na­tions on the pass­ing of a Monarch whose mem­o­ry will be long revered. May she rest in peace.”